This is a significant achievement and an important milestone in the GBX’s vision to create an institutional-grade token sale platform and digital asset exchange. The GBX benefits from the knowledge, experience and expertise of its parent company, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, and this has stood it in good stead for successfully negotiating the licensing process in Gibraltar. Working from a foundation of best practises and high industry standards, the GBX has greeted the award of its licence as an important world-first, with the GSX now the first regulated stock exchange in the world to also operate its own blockchain exchange.

The GBX has demonstrated sustained progress towards achieving its goals throughout 2018. This has included the full-scale public launch of its token sale platform, the GBX-GRID in April and the launch in July of its secondary platform, the GBX-DAX (GBX Digital Asset Exchange).

Nick Cowan said of the achievement that securing authorisation as a DLT provider in Gibraltar is affirmation of the GBX’s tireless efforts to position itself among the world’s leading digital exchanges. Speaking at the World Trade Center during a Startup Grind meetup on 21st November, the day the award of the licence was announced, Nick explained how the GSX had found the application and approval process.

It was a tough process, he told those present, elaborating on how Gibraltar’s regulator works on the basis of nine principles which allow it flexibility to address new and innovative business. However, those same principles also allow the regulator to examine an applicant’s business, systems and processes in minute detail to ensure that these meet their overall requirements. “We were amazed,” Nick added, “at how much we learned through the process of regulation. It was a tough process, but it really worked for us.” With a regulator that is extremely stringent on issues such as risk analysis and governance issues, AML and KYC processes as well as security, the process was thorough, robust and “streets ahead of any other jurisdiction in the world.”

“The GBX,” concluded Nick, “is a better organisation for that process than we were at the start of it.”As a DLT licence-holder, the GBX has strengthened is position as a blockchain exchange and the announcement that the licence has been awarded by Gibraltar’s regulator will certainly provide a powerful impetus to future developments of the GSX-GBX ecosystem.